A Mage Asundered: Beginnings of a story
by PandaChanX3
Summary: The starts of the journey of Neara Amell.


_"My sweet child. All you need do is ask. Simple ask and together we can get out of this tower. Get out of this hell. Save our friend, and get our revenge."_

"He's my friend, not yours. It's my revenge to seek."

_"We can leave this tower. Gain power. Anything your mortal heart desires will come true."_

The demon smiled warmly, invitingly, but the girl barely looked at her. Mainly at her feet.

_"Child? What is you're answer?"_

"Never you bitch of a demon!" The girl screamed.

"Neara. ...Neara..are you awake?"

Neara pulled the pillow over her head but a gentle hand grabbed and began gently shaking her shoulder. "Neara? Are you awake?"

"Now I am, " the young mage groaned.

"That's good," She felt Jowan sit on the foot of her bed.

She took the pillow off her head and Jowan studied her odd looks closely.

Her black hair hung in spikey layers, but her hair held a strange blue tint in the light, and in her bangs, which hangs in her face to cover the right side of her face, had streaks of blue. Her skin was pale and seemed flawless, except for the scar that went over her right eye. It was about 4 inches long but there.

"Jowan?"

"You're a mage now. They say that was one the fastest Harrowings on record! Aside from two or three other people of course. Including your -" "Don't say it!"

Her reveled violet eye shone with rage.

"Ok, ok, ok. Not going there. Irving wants to see you by the way." Jowan stood up and held out his hand to help her up.

She looked at his hand carefully. They had been friends since they were partnered in a herbalism class..somehow. She was always quite. Never really good at talking to people, and tended to have a terrible temper when irrated. She once attacked a templar for calling her a bitch when she told him to bug off. They pulled her off of him kicking and screaming. The only thing that saved him was the fact that she's one of Irvings favorittes and he drew his blade when she didn't even summon a spark of magic.

Yet Jowan earned her trust, and he'd trust her with his life. She didn't take his hand, but pulled herself off the bed. Her black and red robes hung down to cover her black boots.

"Than I should go see Irving."

"Great. Afterwards, I need to speak to you."

She walked past him, and her shoes tapping against the unclothed part of the hallway was her only compainion. Alone..she preffered it this way.

When she walked into the room Irving was arguing with the Templar Commander, Gregoir. She stood there for a minute in silence before Irving noticed her.

"Ahhhh Neara. Pleasure to see you."

"Hello Irving. Gregoir." Another man walked up from the back of the room. He carried weapons and his hair in a ponytail.

Irving picked up ," This is Duncan. A Grey Warden."

"Grey Warden huh?" _Grey Warden? Fairy Tales and child talk. _"Duncan, my name is Neara Amell."

"Oh, I've heard a good bit about you."

Irving spoke up,"Would you please escort Duncan to his room?"

Neara didn't reply just held up her left hand and did a 'follow me motion' and walked out the door. Duncan followed close behind. She didn't speak much, and she had an air that begged to be left alone. "This is your room, Duncan." She said noticing towards a room across the hall from them.

"I notice you walk only on the uncarpeted parts of the hallway. Why is that?"

She turned and looked at him and he noticed her strange violet eyes,"I like the noise. I think people should make a noise when they move. Shoes tapping the floor is a way to prove you're there."

She turned to walked back down the hallway when Duncan laughed,"You're not very talkative."

She didn't answer. She just paused to look at him with a look of pure sadness and lonliness, before heading towards the library.

The library. She walked in towards the section she was working on, past a couple necking in a dark corner behind her, and scanned the book spines, trailing her hand aimlessly against them. _ I was on..hmm..the red one with silver writting. Soo I should be on Herbs For All.._ She froze and gave a growl of disapproval loud enough for the couple to hear and coward away.

"It's that Amell girl.."

"She's so weird!"

Neara didn't hear them. She was to irrated at the book stuffed into the hearbalism section. Stories Of History : The Grey Wardens.

She pulled it out of the slot and walked back to the section it belonged in, but froze up arrivale. In the section where the Grey Warden book was suppose to be was a black book with blood red lettering. The Dangers Of Blood. Neara looked at the book in her hands, laid gently on the shelf, and took a book about Templars instead.

_Blood Magic..All Blood Magic users should perish as painfully as possible._

She was sitting in an opening, leaned against the wall with the templar book open in her lap. She was so in depth she almost missed the clank of armor.

"Hello Amell." Cullen whispered.

"Greetings Cullen."

"How are you today?"

"Fine. Thank you."

"That's goo-" "Neara!" Jowan ran up.

"Jowan." She spoke it still trying to read.

"I still need to speak to you! Preferably before all your stuff is moved into your new room."

Neara sighed but closed her book, using a scrap of blue fabric to keep her place, and stood up.

"Great! Come with me!" Jowan reached to grab her wrist but she flinched from the quick motion and Jowan cautiously slowed his speed. He gently pulled her away from Cullen and towards the chantry in the circle. A young woman stood before her now. She smile she gave Jowan already told a story.

"Duncan?"

"Irving?"

"I'd like to ask you of a favor.."

"A favor?"

"Yes. You remeber that Amell girl right?"

"Neara? Yessir."

"Today is her 20-th birthday."

"Really? She looks maybe seventeen."

"She does look younger than her age, but there's something else. Nobody knows its her birthday."

"Nobody?"

"Only four people. Not even Jowan, the only friend she has knows it her birthday."

"I see..That's..sad."

"It really is. I'd like for you to do moe a favor. She's liked here since she was 6, and she came here under terrible cirrumstances I'm not at liberty to discuss. I'd like for you to take her out to a town tomarrow. I just want her to see the world a bit better. She passed on anything that even lead her outside. She's been stuck in this tower for 14 years."

"If you'd like that.. I will see what I can do.."

Neara stood frozen. "You want me to help you get into the vault?"

"Please, Neara! It's the only way Lily and I can be together!" Jowan pleaded in that whiny voice of gazed at Neara.

"But than..."

"We need you Neara."

Neara knew the punishment.. She'd more than likely be beaten or locked into a holding room for a couple of weeks.

...Jowan was her friends..her only friend..

So..why did she have such a bad feeling in her gut when she nodded her head?


End file.
